Tag Archives: wages

The prevalent and dystopian image of robots destroying jobs rests upon another popular image that has also gained widespread currency: the assumption that labour productivity has increased dramatically. This assumption makes logical sense since the purpose of automation is to increase productivity. …

A new issue, that is in fact age-old, is receiving enormous interest these days from economists, social scientists and journalists. The danger of automation, or the process by which machines render labour to be obsolete, is seen as a real and fundamental danger. …

This article was published October 23 in German
A reader pointed to an article by Professor Thomas Straubhaar, the former head of the Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI) (thanks for that!). Straubhaar complains that central banks are making a mistake by keeping the interest rate at zero. …

In Germany, we are used to quite a bit from the CDU (the Christian Democratic Party). Not much of anything surprises us any longer. The same is not true of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). The SPD has been mostly silent about the drama that is occurring in Europe in general and in southern Europe in particular. …